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STARTING YOUNG, STARTING EARLY—PART 1
CRY FOR HELP:
Can children elementary-age and
younger really be suicidal?
“It was back in the 1990s that I first became involved in working with suicidal youths when I worked in the emergency room of a hospital in the Bronx. There was very little in the scientific literature then about suicidal children. Yet I saw so many youngsters who were so ill. Children as young as 5 who were severely psychotic with bizarre preoccupations and thoughts of suicide. A morbidly depressed 8-year-old child with a very strong genetic history of mood disorders. A 12-year-old youngster who completed suicide after enduring years of bullying. Children who experienced the worst kind of loss, including the suicide of a parent. The intensity of their response was exceptional and heartbreaking.”
- CYNTHIA PFEFFER, M.D., Cornell University
Can children as young as preschool age can display suicidal behavior and thinking—an intent to cause self-injury or death, regardless of their cognitive ability to understand finality, lethality or outcomes?
A growing body of research has shown that young children do plan, attempt and die by suicide—in contrast to earlier false assumptions that young children are not capable of either contemplating or performing suicidal acts.
Consider these compelling and substantiating data: Rates of suicide in children ages 10-14 have increased since the 1950s by 300 percent.
One 2009 published study showed most males who completed suicide and/or made serious suicide attempts in adolescence or early adulthood had psychiatric problems by the age of 8 years (Finnish 1981 Birth Cohort Study).
Given these and other data, researchers contend there is good reason to pay special attention to children’s own intimations of distress in elementary school.
Tuesday, Sept. 27th, 2011
3-4:30 PM Eastern
2-3:30 PM Central
1-2:30 PM Mountain
12-1:30 PM Pacific
FORWARD TO A COLLEAGUE: CLICK HERE
LOCATION: On the Internet. Accessing the Webinar is easy and requires no special hardware or equipment. The visual presentation slides are delivered to you over the Internet on your computer. The live audio sound can be delivered to you in one of two ways: 1) Via a toll call placed over your telephone. Note this call is long distance and will be charged to your phone service; OR 2) FREE OF CHARGE via voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP. All you need is a computer with speakers.
FEE: Free of charge; note that audio access via telephone is a toll call with associated long-distance charges. Sponsored by the Wyoming Department of Health and Wyoming Department of Education.
SPEAKER:
CYNTHIA R. PFEFFER, M.D.
Among the world’s most distinguished senior authorities on suicide in children, Cynthia R. Pfeffer, M.D. is a prolific researcher and clinician. For more than 30 years Dr. Pfeffer’s groundbreaking work has helped advance understanding of suicidal preadolescent children, and what adults can do to safeguard these vulnerable youngsters. Her books include The Suicidal Child (Guilford Press, 1986) and Severe Stress and Mental Disturbance in Children (APA Press, 1998). Dr. Pfeffer is among four eminent experts to present a discussion on Oct. 20, 2011 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry on her seminal work and how it has contributed to advancement of scientific knowledge of at-risk children. Dr. Pfeffer's clinical, research, and teaching expertise are in child development, anxiety, depression, suicidal behavior, and bereavement. She is a senior member of the Patient Care Team for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Center for Children’s Health, affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Pfeffer also directs the Center’s Childhood Bereavement Program. The scope of Dr. Pfeffer's research considers the link between psychosocial, developmental, and biological factors to suicidal state in children, and includes assessing suicidal children, family psychopathology, the aftermath of suicide of relatives for children, interventions for suicidal children, and neurophysiological features of suicidal children. On-going studies include:
>>Identifying psychosocial risk factors for suicidal acts in late adolescents and young adults who have a history of prepubertal suicidal behavior, work that may elucidate important risk factors for suicidal behavior during a very high-risk developmental period.
>>Impact of suicidal death of a relative on prepubertal children, and brief interventions to enhance psychosocial functioning of the children, work that may specify early prevention methods for children at risk for suicidal behavior.
>>Family functioning of suicidal children to identify inter-generational correlations to early onset suicidal behavior.
>>Psychopharmacological treatment of anxious, aggressive, prepubertal children who are at risk for suicidal or assaultive behavior, work aimed at decreasing risk for suicidal states in children.
>>Personality traits and social supports pertinent to risk or prevention of suicidal behavior in prepubertal children.
Dr. Pfeffer was the first recipient of the Norbert Rieger Award for scientific excellence and is a Life Fellow and past Councilor-at-Large of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Past President of the American Association of Suicidology, and Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
QUESTIONS: Contact Well Aware Webinars at:
(E) talkback@wellawaresp.org or (P) 920-457-4033.
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